Francis Tiafoe and I Agree.

I’ve said for 20 years that tennis has a “tradition” problem. Making fans sit? Not letting anyone into the stadium except on changeovers? Give me one reason tennis needs more restrictions than basketball? One real reason? I can think of 2 words a fan cannot yell without ejection during a point: “Let!” And “Out!” and of course, obscenities. Beyond that I say make noise, get rowdy and bring tennis into the 21st Century. Francis Tiafoe is totally correct. This is something I believe John McEnroe and I also agree on. 

I’ve had times where I had to stand outside for 15-20 minutes while a good match took place inside that I’d paid over $100 to attend because walking into a 15,000 seat stadium (in the upper deck at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second largest tennis stadium in the world) would disturb players and other fans. Gimme a break! Poor little sensitive tennis players. If we allowed it the players would learn to focus the same way basketball players have learned to focus when shooting foul shots. And the fans? It’s no different than a movie theater. People will police themselves. If someone gets up too much, fans will get annoyed and speak out.

Now I’m speaking out. Let’s do away with all this “tradition” and let athletes who are paid millions of dollars learn to focus and let fans free of the imprisoning nature of tennis’ stuffy attitude toward movement.

See article below for more info on Tiafoe’s statement.

Article on Tiafoe’s opinion on how to bring more spectators to the greatest game in the world.

Good ESPN Article on the “Little four”

http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/18313828/clock-ticking-tennis-little-four-david-ferrer-jo-wilfried-tsonga-tomas-berdych-gael-monfils

ATP Racket Bracket 2016 Wimbledon

http://www.tourneytopia.com/RacquetBracketWimbledonATP/WimbledonATP/pool/EntryPicks.aspx?EntryId=569260

Wimbledon 2014 GOAT Discussion

Rafa is the clay king, no debate.  Even Borg would have had trouble with Rafa.  However, no other player is nearly as complete as Roger Federer.  As a tennis purist, you cannot overlook the quality and efficiency of Fed’s movement and his level of proficiency on every stroke from every part of a tennis court.  None of his shots, save his forehand, is the best in it’s class, but all of his shots are in the top 5 ever.  His forehand is the single greatest weapon in the history of tennis, consistency, placement, and power all rolled into one.

Rafa has the clay thing solved, but benefited from other things like the slow down of the courts that happened in 2000 or thereabouts and continues to this day…as far as having the most impressive career grand slam, Agassi holds that distinction since when he won his slams, they were the most varied surfaces in the history of tennis (Laver had the same benefit as Nadal since 3 of the 4 majors were on grass during his tenure) so everyone was better at offense then just like everyone who’s successful now is good at defense (except Fed, who had to adapt his game and alter it to become more defensive at the start of his career–not easy to change your whole game and mentality after training that way your whole life).  Nadal is the best defensive player, so he wins the most titles among those guys.  Djokovic is second and Murray third.  Fed’s offense is so good, he overcomes most defense, except Nadal’s and when they play on a truly fast surface (as fast as Roland Garros is slow), then Federer usually dominates.  There are few courts like this left on the ATP Tour. 

Winning Wimbledon is less amazing because the difference from the French is not as stark and the offensive players do not get much time to develop those skills since there are so few grass court events. There is not a single 1000 level grass court tournament, which is just plain ridiculous.  Most of the season, even the offensive players like Tsonga have to play defensively because that’s what wins or you wind up having a career with somewhere around 6-12 titles (Tsonga has ten atp titles). 

UCLA Players Fall in Farmer’s Classic Doubles

UCLA freshman Marcos Giron & All-American Nick Meister (who qualified in singles as well) fell to ATP Tour veterans Rajeev Ram & Michael Russell at the Farmer’s Classic on Wednesday night (July 25, 2012). The first set was quite contentious with Meister and Giron, both California natives, going up an early break, but immediately giving it back in the no-ad scoring format. The tie-breaker was one-sided and the experience of Ram & Russell showed through. In the second set, the young Bruins were clearly deflated as Ram and Russell raced to a 3-0 lead before closing out the match 6-2. Congrats to the Bruins for bringing some good tennis to the Farmer’s Classic and for recruiting American talent for the starting line-up of their team!  See more on this at the UCLA Website.

Nalbandian Video: Kicks Wood into Linesman’s Leg at Queen’s Club 2012

This is an unbelievable display.  However, we have all been this angry on court, but to act on it, and then to get on your soapbox about what’s wrong with the ATP as a governing body at a moment when you should just be apologizing to the crowd for wasting everyone’s time and money is unforgivable.

Nalbandian Interview after Default at Queen’s Club

Two Year Ranking System on ATP Tour Discussed

This article is an interesting discussion of what would happen if Rafa Nadal got his way and we switched to a 2-year accumulation of points instead of the current system in men’s pro tennis that uses a 1-year system.  The most amazing change:  Nadal would still be #1 in the world despite Djokovic’s dominance over the last year!!!

Woah Canada! Defending Champ Andy Murray Out at Roger’s Cup

Magic Eight Ball, will Andy Murray ever win a major championship?  “Outlook not so good.”

I defend this man to all my tennis buddies, saying he’s been to finals and it sometimes takes a while for a champion to find his footing.  However, it is becoming more and more difficult to defend my position, although I still believe he has the talent and tenacity to do it, I won’t be shocked if it never happens.  Murray’s loss to Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-3, 6-1 does no bode well for the Scotsman going into his favorite major, the United States Open later this month.  If he can keep his head about him, while others are losing theirs, if he can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same, well, maybe, just maybe, the 24 year old can hold aloft a major trophy.  Otherwise, he will fade into obscurity as so many other top-fivers who never quite sealed the deal:  Gene Mayer, Guillermo Coria, Eddie Dibbs, Marcelo Rios, and Raul Ramirez.

Donald Young Gets Tennis’ Attention: The Wrong Kind

Donald Young, once believed to be a sure-fire American tennis comer, wrote a hasty tweet yesterday, attacking the USTA after failing to qualify for the French Open.  Young has wallowed in wild-card obscurity for years on the ATP Tour as his parents and the USTA have bickered over how to properly train the lad, according to an ESPN report.

Young seems ungrateful for the help that the United States Tennis Association has provided, including training advice, grant money, and wild card entries into the U.S. Open.  Despite all the help, Young just recently broke into the top hundred on the computer.  Ever since John McEnroe said Young has the best hands I’ve seen, since me, Young has felt the pressure perform.  He’s had long winless periods on tour after being one of the world’s best juniors.  This commentator believes that Young’s shortcomings as a pro are due to his not having a clear weapon to build his game around.

Of course, at age 21, Young still has time to improve and possibly break out of his mediocrity, however, he’s been on tour a long time with only one really impressive result, a recent win over world #4, Andy Murray.

Young later apologized and shut down his twitter feed.

Amazing Performance by Ryan Sweeting Sunday.

According to atptour.com, American Ryan Sweeting became the first American man to win an ATP Tour 250 title since Mardy Fish in 2006 on Sunday by beating Japanese #1 Kei Nishikori 6-4, 7-6(3) in the finals of the U.S. Clay Courts in Houston, Texas.  It was the 23 year-old’s first tour level final and he made the most of it, fighting hard to stave off 3 set points in the second set before winning in a tie-break.

American tennis has taken a hit recently with Roddick falling out of the top ten.  Many in this country wonder where the next American man or woman will come from.  Ryan Sweeting, Sam Querrey, and John Isner all rank in the top 100, while Ryan Harrison, who many believe to be the most promising in terms of potential, sits and #128 with a 2011 record of 3-6.

On the women’s side of the professional tour, the Williams are M.I.A. and after them, the highest ranked American is Bethanie Mattek-Sands at #41.  Mattek-Sands is an interesting player with giant-killing will-power and effort, but is a veteran who will likely not break into the top ten in her career.  Venus is plagued by injuries and an interest in interior design seems to be her current focus.   Serena is about to fall out of the top ten, leaving no American woman in that hallowed realm.  (By the way, if you go to Serena’s website home-page, you wouldn’t even know Serena was a tennis player!).  After that, there are five more U.S. women in the top 100:  Melanie Oudin (#81), Christina McHale (#82), Varvara Lepchenko (#84), Coco Vandeweghe (#91), and Vania King (#99), but none above #81.  Hopefully, one or all of these women can have a wonderful 2011 and break into the top 50.

Perhaps, American tennis in five to ten years will see the benefits of our Quickstart format and the future will be better than the present for our pro tennis players!